Other Fish
by 14InAHeart
Summary: "All my friends wanted to have beautiful human forms. They're all mermaids and naked, scaly humans and stuff. I thought this would be funny." Human AU, half-genderbent, America x Nyo!Canada. Reviews are appreciated but not required!


There were many things Madeline loved about living by the ocean. From her back window, she had a beautiful view of the docks where the fishermen came and went and did their business. Perhaps it wasn't as romantic of a scene as a plainer, bluer ocean against the beach, but Madeline found beauty in even the littlest things. The salt-scented air, too, was exotic to her, and that was another tiny joy to be found along the coast.

The young woman had only moved into this home two months ago, but already, she was settled in, not only with her belongings, but with her heart. This was going to be her home for a long time, she knew.

She strolled along the beach early in the summer afternoon, as she had done every day for a couple of weeks at that point. A few fishing vessels were at the docks, their fishermen unloading huge nets of shimmering, wide-eyed fish onto land. The business caught Madeline's interest, not enough to want to join in, but enough to admire the work put into it. She often walked slowly, watching them from in bashful glimpses over her shoulder.

A group of four men, dragging along a heavy net slightly off to her right and behind her, had caught her attention, and she didn't notice the two lugging a smaller net right in her path.

"'Scuse us, miss." one of them spat in a gruff voice.

"Oh!" Madeline snapped her head around quickly, stumbling back a bit as she tried to make room for the men, "I'm so sorry!" her voice was sincerely apologetic but meek.

They nodded and went on their way, and as they passed, Madeline started on her way too. But it was then a large, glimmering object in the sand caught her vision. A silver fish, probably just left from the net. It was a good medium-sized one, Madeline noted, and she wondered how it could have escaped. It still twitched and flinched ever so slightly, and it's mouth gaped, attempting to grasp the pure air that it couldn't quite breathe.

Madeline could feel a connection to the fish. Nothing strange or supernatural in nature, but it was a motherly instinct of hers kicking in. "Poor thing." she breathed and took the fish gently into her hands. It was several meters to the ocean, and she even risked ruining her favourite pair of shoes to wade into the water a bit further. "There." she whispered sweetly, as she lowered the creature into the water, and it swam terrifyingly slowly away. She wondered if it was far from home and if she had gotten to it soon enough. If it did survive, it would have been an easy target for predators in the state that it was in.

"Don't stress yourself over it." she told herself, "It's only a fish."

The rest of Madeline's day seemed to begin pleasant and routine again. She stopped by a little café in town for her lunch, finding her good friend Francine sitting up at the bar.

They settled at a table by the window to chat. Madeline hadn't seen Francine in what had seemed ages.

"So!" Francine leaned her elbow against the table, "How are things going with Gil?"

Madeline laughed, a bit frigidly, "Even after months that's all you want to talk about!"

The two laughed a bit more before Madeline sighed and started, "There isn't really anything going with Gil. He's been kinda fading away. I haven't seen him since February."

"Oh, no! He hasn't broke up with you, has he!?"

"Francine, we were never dating."

"You should have been."

Madeline fell silent after that.

"Hey..." Francine spoke, getting no response.

"Hey!" she said again, reaching across the table to pinch Madeline's cheek like a doting mother, "There are always other fish in the sea!"

Madeline went home that night with sleepy smile plastered on her face. She took off her shoes then threw her warm, red jacket to the side, hearing it land on her couch with a satisfying swish. She intended to go straight to bed and crash. Her day had been longer than usual anyway, so why not be a little lazy? But as she turned the corner, she gasped.

There, on the mahogany desk that adorned her hallway, was a silver fish, identical to the one she had tried to rescue that morning. It balanced itself on its belly, and it stared at her with beady eyes, gasping for breath.

"No!" she sighed, "What are you..." But she knew she couldn't reason with a fish, so she just shook her head defeatedly. Fish couldn't simply balance themselves on their bellies, at least not skinny ones like this one. He should have flopped about and struggled against the air, but he sat calmly an patiently, his pressuring gaze fixed upon Madeline. It was more than she could take. In one swift movement, she scooped the fish up and ran at the back door, crashing it open with a raised arm. Down a shallow, rocky slope, and across the sand, and she dropped the fish into the ocean again with an echoing plop.

There, Madeline collapsed onto the sand, her legs folded neatly under her. She hadn't bothered grabbing her coat, and it didn't help that the cold, salty water was lapping up against her knees. "Curses to the sap." she spat meekly to no one as she rose to her feet, her bare toes squishing into the wet sand. A long, dragging stomp up the beach, through her door, and down the hall again led her to her bed where she immediately flopped down on her comforter. Sleep came within seconds.

After what had seemed the longest sleep, Madeline opened her eyes to the soft morning light filtering into her window. She yawned softly and stretched, propping herself up on her elbow. The light shining on her felt warm, so it wasn't much of a problem that she had slept above her blanket.

Madeline blinked before glancing down. The fish was on the other side of the bed, flopping around violently on the sheets.

"Yo, lady..."

Madeline shut her eyes, desperately hoping that it would take her somewhere out of the nightmare.

"Hey, pretty human girl."

She was hearing voices.

"Wake up, sweet thang."

Madeline opened her eyes again. She had truly woken up. And a man was staring at her.

"Ga-gah!" she shrieked, jumping back, and catching herself before she fell off the mattress.

Not only was there a man on her bed, but he was wearing a fish suit.

"Oh," he said, turning his eyes down, "am I freaking you out? Am I acting too human? I'm sorry; I'll fix it." With that, he lay down on his side and started flopping, imitating the fish in Madeline's dream perfectly.

"Stop! Stop!" she waved frantically at him, "Just tell me what you're doing here!"

The man became still and raised his head. "Oh! Yeah man! I wanted to stop by and thank the pretty woman for saving me!"

"You're not..."

"Human?"

"You're not that fish...?"

"Uhh..."

Madeline sat up completely, staring him over thoroughly. A man in a fish suit. A cheaply made, silver fish suit that mimicked the one she had saved twice the day before. However, he didn't have the beady eyes that had nearly bore into her soul. His eyes were blue and his gaze was softer than that of a fish, she noted, tilting her head in curiosity. Dark blond locks of hair messily poked out around his face.

"I'm Al." he exclaimed, breaking the silence.

Madeline knew he had to be lying. He was too human to be the fish.

"So, 'Al', tell me," she started, narrowing her eyes, "why is your human form simply a fish suit?"

"Oh, this old thing?" he laughed, "All my friends wanted to have beautiful human forms. They're all mermaids and naked, scaly humans and stuff. I thought this would be funny."

Madeline tried to hide her giggling. "That's... Okay, it kind of is funny." she admitted. Perhaps she could warm up to him, but she still felt utterly creeped out by the situation. Either something from a fantasy story was happening in the real world, which was freaky, or there was some random guy in her bed dressed as a fish, which was also freaky.

"You don't believe me." he gave her a toothy smile.

"Of course I don't believe you!"

"Is this proof enough?" He sucked his lips together and made his best fish face.

"No!" However, it only made Madeline laugh more.

"Hey, why did you sleep with those in?" Al gestured towards Madeline's pigtails.

"Oh!" she explained, "I was just really tired because _someone_ decided to 'follow' me home."

Al reached over, stretching his fin sleeves out, and yanked one of the elastics.

"Hey!" she protested, but her hair was already down and loose, falling over her shoulder in waves. Al ran his fingers through it curiously, and she rolled her eyes, taking the other pigtail out. He had ruined the style, but she shrugged it off. She would have to brush her hair anyway, especially now that it stunk of fish.

It stunk of fish. Madeline scrunched her nose upon the realization. Al stunk of fish too.

"Why do you wear it up like that? It looks better down."

"Because I like it better up. There's nothing wrong with me choosing to put it up.

He shrugged, "Yeah, man, you're right. It just looks more natural down. I guess that's what I'm used to."

Perhaps, Madeline thought, she could get used to him. Yeah, she could hang out with him. That didn't mean she had to trust him, she reminded herself. Maybe fish just didn't know human social standards... There went her silly mind again. There was no way the fish could have turned human.

"Hm," he hummed in thought, "Do you fish?"

"Yes..." she muttered lowly. She wasn't going to lie to him, at least not about something silly like that, but she didn't want to hurt his feelings.

"Oh, well-"

"Wait!" she interrupted, "Not like the fishing they do on the beach down there! That's too, um..."

Al nodded, urging her to go on.

Madeline continued, "That's too rough. I... I just like to go down to the lake sometimes and cast a line out, catch a few fish, throw them back. It's relaxing, you know?"

"Mm-hm." he nodded again as they both fell silent.

Madeline could hear the clock in the next room ticking. But only for a moment.

"Well!" Al exclaimed, his voice filling the space again, "I've thanked you for the saving and what-not! I'll be going." As he leaned forward and shifted his weight to his feet, he turned his head and pecked Madeline on the lips. "And next time you fish, you'll catch a better one than me, 'kay?"

"Bu-but..." Madeline sputtered, not actually knowing what she was trying to say.

"Nuh-uh!" Al raised a hand as he sauntered out of the room. "I'm going home."

"But!" she started after him.

"There are other fish in the sea!" he shouted from down the hall, and Madeline heard her back door slam.

There were many things Madeline loved about living by the ocean. Seeing all the other fish was one of them.

* * *

_AN: Another sorta silly piece. This was actually a dare from a friend who said that it wasn't possible to have an actual good storyline where Maddie would rescue a fish then wake up to Alfred in a fish suit flopping around on her bed. I don't actually support many half-genderbent pairings myself because I see Nyotalia as a completely separate Alternate Universe from Hetalia, so the genderbends wouldn't really know the original characters, eh? She wanted me to keep the pairing as AmeNyo!Can, her favourite pairing, so I thought it was a pretty good challenge for me as a writer. Hope you enjoyed it! _

_A little fun fact: They say that if you kiss a fish, you'll catch one bigger than the fish that you kissed. _

_Another fun fact: I, the author, have kissed a fish before. _


End file.
